This article examines the alarming resurgence of terrorism in Afghanistan, particularly in its historic cities, and how this poses threats to cultural heritage and global security. Delve into the implications for the Afghanistan conflict and international efforts against terrorism.
The plea deal that American military prosecutors reached with Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, sparing him from the death penalty was quickly revoked amidst the fury of 9/11 families, who were already outraged about revelations of Saudi complicity in aiding the hijackers.
Meanwhile, the terrible Gaza war launched in response to the traumatic 10/7 Hamas attack on Israel grows more dangerous in its international ramifications every day, raising a furious debate over whether the Jewish state is making some of the same mistakes the United States made in prosecuting the “global war on terror.” (See Global Insights piece by Edward Girardet on Afghanistan: The Trump-Bien debacle three years on)
And now word of the lavish hospitality the restored Taliban rulers of Afghanistan are extending to their longtime al Qaeda allies near a historic Afghan city loaded with symbolism has raised the question of whether America’s longest war has only made the world a more dangerous place.
Re-published with permission from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 1, 2024. Photo: Archive UNESCO World Heritage photo of Sahrh-i-Zohak cliff taken in 1910.
The fabled city of Ghazni (See Vanni Cappelli article in Global Insights) is one of those places which, like Venice, have to be seen to be believed. Once the capital of one of the greatest Muslim states, the eponymous Ghaznavid Empire, it was also a major cultural crossroads which flourished amidst the security provided by imperial power. It had colleges, libraries, schools of scholars and poets, palaces of marble and statues of bronze at a time when the Italian survivors of the Roman period were still huddling for safety within the ruins.
Time and wars have reduced much of this to ruins. Yet there is still standing the city’s most famous monument: the twin “Towers of Victory,” soaring, honey-colored minarets dating to the 12th century and made of terracotta bricks intricately worked with beautiful geometric and floral patterns. Even they, however, have been placed on the endangered list by the World Monuments Fund, due to their structural instability — and that of the country.
I journeyed to Ghazni in mid-September of 2003, right after attending my second 9/11 memorial service at the American embassy in Kabul. My specific purpose was to observe an intriguing initiative where highly trained dogs were used to discover landmines that would otherwise escape metal detectors. Beyond that, I was interested in exploring the deeper question of how dangerous places can be made safe again, not just for their inhabitants but for the world at large.
After all, the stated aim of the American war in Afghanistan was to fulfill the immediate post-9/11 resolve: that the perpetrators of the atrocities would never again enjoy state protection.
Coincidentally, an embassy official I spoke to right after the service told me that Washington was looking at ways to achieve this besides sheer military force, and that Ghazni, with its fascinating past and strategic location on the main highway between Kabul and Kandahar, was a perfect candidate for a new program along those lines.
He explained that the State Department was going to create “Lincoln Learning Centers” across the country, venues where Afghan men and women would be exposed to American culture and values, take English and computer classes, and attend cultural and civil society capacity-building events. They would be furnished with books and multi-media materials on U.S. history, politics, law, business, literature, music, art and film, as well as an internet connection.
The theme that would be stressed at the Ghazni LLC was that the city had once been a great crossroads of civilization, and could be that again — if it remained free of the violent intolerance of the Taliban and al Qaeda and opened its native culture to modern values.
Not surprisingly, I found much enthusiasm for the idea among the people I met in Ghazni, who agreed that the best antidote to indoctrination was education. As I watched the sun set behind the twin minarets on my last night in the city, they seemed to gather all of the waning light unto themselves, beaming like golden shafts against a darkening blue sky. I was reminded of the World Trade Center, which I often saw reflecting light in just that way as an undergraduate studying Muslim history and society at NYU, and mused that enlightenment was indeed the
path to victory here.
Yet the circular historical trajectory that had brought America back to Afghanistan, where its heavy covert support for the Afghan resistance to the invading Soviets in the 1980s had ensured their victory, required that Washington itself come to enlightenment regarding why that venture had gone so tragically wrong if a real, lasting victory was to be won this time.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan had leveraged their role as partners in the effort to pave the way for their imposition of the Taliban after the Russians withdrew, and the militants had sheltered Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda as they plotted 9/11. If American national security depended on the values represented by the LLC prevailing over those of violent extremism in places like Ghazni, Washington had to project its power to protect those who were open to those values. That meant finding different partners — above all secular, democratic India, which most Afghans had long looked to as a counterweight to Pakistani influence.
Instead, Washington’s refusal to engage in soul-searching, and its consequent projection of a simplistic narrative of fighting terrorism together with traditional allies, resulted in history coming full circle yet again.
Military assistance to Pakistan was renewed and increased, despite overwhelming evidence that it continued to support the Taliban. The Ghazni LLC, which had been a great success attracting thousands of participants eager to transform their societyinto a model for the Muslim world, became the target of death threats, and was seized and repurposed by the militants when they overran the country in August of 2021.
It was the least of the modern infrastructure they inherited. In the absence of enlightenment, twenty years of intense American investment in urban development, road construction and weapons for the Afghan army have only ended in capacity-building for the Taliban. And they have been quick to extend their upgraded hospitality to their old friends.
Despite having pledged in the Doha Accord of 2020, which led to the American withdrawal, that they would sever all ties to al Qaeda, a series of United Nations reports have documented that the new (old) masters of Afghanistan have enabled the terrorist group to open training camps, safe houses, recruiting centers, weapons stockpiles and madrassas (religious schools) spread out over 12 of the country’s 34 provinces. These have been built at a cost of tens of millions of dollars with materials left over from the international community’s presence.
In early June, Saif al Adl, al Qaeda’s current leader, felt confident enough of his group’s restored safe haven to issue a call for Muslims from around the world to travel to Afghanistan. There they would find a role model for their own societies in the Taliban, he said, and would acquire training, experience and knowledge that would empower them to avenge the suffering in Gaza by attacking “Zionists” and Westerners in their homelands.
These recruits may very well end up in Ghazni, in whose rural districts the Taliban is constructing a well-equipped military base for al Qaeda, complete with residential housing, a training center and a madrassa, where indoctrination will replace education, as reported by the reputable Afghan exile newspaper Hasht-e-Subh Daily.
With so much activity on their agenda, it is highly unlikely that the jihadists who again have free run of Afghanistan will attend to the preservation of the magnificent minarets. Perhaps, in the course of neglect or violence, they will bring these twin towers crashing to the ground.
They have done such a thing before.
Vanni Cappelli, a freelance journalist who writes regularly for Global Insights, is the president of the Afghanistan Foreign Press Association.
Afghanistan: The Trump-Biden Debacle – Three years and Beyond
America’s – and NATO’s – Afghanistan disaster: Still a possible peace solution with a Marshall Plan.
Not Knowing the Color of the Sky in Afghanistan
Ukraine: Putin’s Vietnam
Focus on Afghanistan: Peter Jouvenal – A journalist veteran held by the Taliban
Back to the Cold War
Russia’s Ukraine Intervention: Death by a Thousand Cuts?
Russia and China: The Bros in the Owner’s Box
Building Bridges for Geneva and the world: Breaking the silos
Focus on Afghanistan: Peter Jouvenal – A journalist veteran held by the Taliban